5 Leading Candidates for the Chelsea Manager Job

Last week Jose Mourinho was in London house shopping. Days later Andre Villas-Boas gets the sack. Was it a planned coup? Is Mourinho returning to the club where he made his name? He apparently doesn’t like Spain, nor the Spanish media so is he going to leave Real Madrid at the end of the season?

But Pep Guardiola is in it too. He hasn’t signed an extension to his contract with Barcelona. He’s always said he wants to coach outside Spain one day. He joked about coaching Chelsea didn’t he? Surely it was just a joke? Maybe leave Barcelona on a high note?

Wait! There’s still Rafa Benitez, who recently said he wants to coach again and would be interested in the Chelsea job. Maybe he doesn’t mind coaching a team where the owner is a renegade and acts on his own accord?

Sven. That’s right Sven-Goran Eriksson said he “would take it, of course.” Is Sven coming back to the England? He doesn’t think it’s a “poisoned chalice,” so he might take a shot at it.

Roberto Di Matteo might just stay on though, why leave? A couple of wins here and there, get the players on his side and maybe he’ll get the job. Does he even want to try from the poisoned chalice?

The Trequartista looks at the candidates to take over the Chelsea hot-seat and whether these men will suit the Chelsea faithful. And what might get rid of them:

1. Jose Mourinho

Why he’s right for Chelsea: Well because he put them on the world map in the first place. He has unfinished business at Stamford Bridge, so a return wouldn’t be out of the question. Whether he gets the money to make a complete new team is.

Will the fans love him: Find me a Chelsea fan that doesn’t.

Will the players want him: John Terry, Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard would happily commit adultery with Mourinho. So yeah.

Why would Roman fire him: If he demands an infinite amount of money; act like he’s running the club and go back to playing 1-0 football.

2. Pep Guardiola

Why he’s right for Chelsea: His record over the last three years is exceptional. He’s created one of the greatest teams ever; playing the most pleasant football people around the globe have seen.

Will the fans love him: If he brings them the same success he has with Barcelona, they’ll adore him. Plus the pretty football.

Will the players accept him: It’s Guardiola; he demands presence and respect when he walks in the room. Whether or not, the players will be happy for him to implement Villas-Boas-like changes remains to be seen. But unlike Villas-Boas behind that cool, calm persona, Pep’s a hard bastardo

Why would Roman fire him: Rome wasn’t build in a day. Neither was Barcelona. Time is the biggest factor.

3. Rafael Benitez

Why he’s right for Chelsea: Rafa has a decent record as a manager. Titles in Spain, England and Europe speak for themselves.

Will the fans love him: Benitez recently said Liverpool fans would still love him if he went to coach Chelsea. As for Chelsea fans, they see as a second-rate Mourinho. Just look at him when he took over at Inter Milan.

Will the players accept him: Players have known Rafa for his cold demeanour. He doesn’t befriend them or provide them with support; he’s a model professional, so maybe that’s what the Chelsea dressing room needs. Plus, he’s made Torres a star player, so maybe he could do it again?

Why would Roman fire him: He plays boring football.

4. Sven-Goran Eriksson

Why he’s right for Chelsea: He has bags of experience: European, International, domestic and a wealth of trophies to show his success.

Will the fans love him: Eriksson has become an unpopular person in England following his wasted spell of the so-called “Golden Generation”. Although he was unlucky to get out of finals on penalties twice (World Cup ’06 and Euro ’04). So it’s a straight 50-50.

Will the players accept him: The oldies will have worked with him before and although they never won anything, there was never a bad word said about him.

Why would Roman fire him: For Sven to a great coach, he’ll need good players, which requires spending on Roman’s half. Which might not happen; resulting in Sven relying on the players he has now, which aren’t too good either. It will be tough for him.

5. Roberto Di Matteo

Why he’s right for Chelsea: He knows the club inside out. He’s great at man management. Plus he’s got an eye for attractive football. He’s already off to a good start with a 2-0 win in the FA Cup over Birmingham already. A good finish to the season, might see him grab the role permanently.

Will the fans love him: He was voted in Chelsea’s greatest IX. So yeah, they love him.

Will the players accept him: It seems they already have. The 2-0 win over Birmingham didn’t feature Lampard or Drogba, but there was no problem or political pull. He simply took them aside and told them why they were starting on the bench. No problems, no fuss. He’s got them on his side; something AVB never had.

Why would Roman fire him: Highly unlikely that Roman would fire him – he’s only contracted till the end of the season anyway. Another sacking would cause more chaos in the Chelsea staff. If he gets them to fourth place he might stay around. Or Roman might still fire him anyway.

Out of the five candidates, which one do you think should get the Chelsea job and that will be able to turn the team around? Or is there a candidate you think that should be considered that’s not listed above? Share your opinions in the comments section below.

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18 Comments

jtm371March 7, 2012

no chance in hell for your first 2 picks.Jose would rather comeback to one of the top teams and stick it to Roman.Pep who in the world would leave the best team going with the best player going to go to a broken old team with very little young talent and a nut case of a owner.plus the last time i checked the weather in Barca is a tad nicer then London just saying.

Well if Mourinho himself wins La Liga (basically in the bag) and the UCL then Pep could rethink this. But I doubt he would especially for Chelsea where the players basically need to be treated like babies and will always start games. Pep is known for just discarding players like old cars just like how he did to Zlatan and Toure.

Your wrong Jose would come back, and Chelsea is one of the top clubs in the world. All the Chelsea fans love him plus he himself has said he would come back as he loves the club very much and has a great rappor with the fans. He also has unfinished business at Chelsea plus him and Roman are good freinds again and he would take him back.
Keep the faith
CFC for Life!!

There is no way Abramovich is going to admit he’s wrong and rehire Mourinho. Benetiz baffled everybody including himself with his rotation system. Di Matteo has little experience although he may be a dark horse and Sven will require assurances that there’s a constant supply of shaggable birds.

Chelsea could do with a dose of reality and appoint a tried but unglamorous manager to really sort them out. Somebody who can command respect and make his players realise they are not more important than the manager. I’ve said it once and will say it again they could do a lot worse than someone like Martin Jol. He’s achieved success by rebuilding every team without millions and you won’t see his life being played out in the papers.

To be honest it’s not a bad gig. You get hired for astronomical wages then suddenly stunning Russian models with bizarre names like Bratislava and Boginskaya scrap it out to be your secret girlfriend. Then get fired, your contract paid off and everybody blames Abramovitch.

I don’t understand the 1-0 wins for Mourinho comment. Looking over his years at Chelsea he always came in the top 2 in goals scored among the league. Right now he is about to break La Ligas goal scoring record to. I see no proof to backup the comments made that Mourinho wins games 1-0.

Silly article stating nothing new, masking the main point: Another rabid Arsenal fan mentally turning three consecutive wins into the delusional equivelent of winning the league and taking pot shots at RA and Chelsea.

Only Rafa – “makes sense” He is the only one that can set the team, to get the best out of Torres. But, kiss winning the league good bye anytime soon . An almost guranteed CL final spot in 2 years though.

Jose will never go back whilst the club is owned by Abramovich.

Pep – will be given 8 months to make Chelsea the biggest club in the world with an aging team, and the odd overpriced player that he doesn’t want, thrown on his lap, I can’t see it.

Jose is the only manager paying over the odds compensation. Before that can happen Jose would need iron clad assurances that he controls the football matters of the club. End of discussion on that one.

If not him, then my pick is for David Moyes to step up into the situation his talents deserve. Mainly, to lead a football team capable of winning trophies year in and year out.

Personally, I don’t think Jose Mourinho will return to Chelsea. I can see him using it as leverage to broker a bigger and better contract with Real Madrid or another top European club, but if Mourinho is to return to the Premier League, I think it’s more likely he’ll join Tottenham Hotspur or, in a few years, Manchester United.

So if it’s not Jose for Chelsea, who will it be? I think Chelsea supporters are not going to be pleased with whoever it is, unless it’s Mourinho. I wouldn’t be surprised if Fabio Capello is approached for the job. I can’t see Pep Guardiola taking it, nor Sven or Di Matteo.

Sadly for Chelsea, the number of managers who are both experienced and willing to take on the job continues to dwindle as they burn bridges with Ancelotti, Mourinho, Villas-Boas, Scolari and others.

Perhaps the answer for Chelsea is either Frank Rijkaard or Didier Deschamps.

A lot of people think Benitez’s failure at Inter works against him. But Inter have not done any better since he left either. In retrospect Benitez was correct in his assessment of what Inter needed to do to improve as they have an ageing squad with many of their star players too set in their ways. The problem at Chelsea is somewhat the same so unless the owner is going to back his manager, no matter who it is, I don’t see Chelsea improving unless they embark on rejuvenating the squad.

Mourinho might be a short-term solution as we now know that he likes to move at the first sight of dissatisfaction. He has lost some control at Real Madrid and that’s why he wants to leave. He might still stay if Real win the CL but I don’t think he will be given the type of control he wants at Real. So he might still end up at Chelsea but I don’t think he will be able to succeed as much as his first time around as most of the senior players are in their decline.

The problem of course is that nobody knows what Roman is going to do except get impatient and at the first sign of a problem he’ll fire the manager.

Mourinho leaves teams because he has won everything there is to win. He is a man of challenges. Also Mourinho has not lost any control of Real Madrid, in fact he gained incredible control when they fired Valdano and made Mourinho head of player transfers. Mourinho has never left a team without winning all the trophies there is to win in that league except for Chelsea because Roman wanted to control who played in the starting lineup and MOurinho wanted none of that. Benitez is a crap manager who couldn’t take a trebel winning team not even months from winning the Champions League, to make it in the top 4 in Italy.

Pls mourinho should return let Roman do everthing he can to seen that mourinho retruns let him try to meet up with his offers so that chelsea can comeback to wining ways other club fans here in nigeria are alrady making mokry of my great club pls but if he refuse to come then u should go for pep,these two only has the quality to transform chelsea in to the best club in the world thenks.godson nwofor

One of the reasons Mourinho left Inter was that he knew the squad was getting older and that Inter didn’t have much money to spend. That’s why no manager has done well there since he left.

He has done very well at Real Madrid because they have the money to spend. He will most definitely win the title this season but whether or not Real Madrid are able to overcome Barcelona in the CL is uncertain. He has a terrible record at Real Madrid against Barcelona. In the second leg of the Copa del Ray in Barcelona the players demanded that he play an attacking side and he reluctantly did so and that was the beginning of his dissatisfaction as he feels that some of the Spanish players at Real Madrid have power because they have the backing of the president.

If Mourinho does return to Chelsea Roman will have to promise to spend to bring in players and he will also demand more power than he had the last time he was at Chelsea. The question is, will Roman agree to it? Also, what are Roman’s priorities, win the title or CL? If it’s the title, he will have to spend big to rival City. If it’s a top 4 and winning the CL then that could be doable if they get the right draw as Real Madrid and Barcelona are way ahead of Chelsea and will be hard to catch.